UPDATE 1-Singapore's GIC may invest in more banks - TV

SINGAPORE, April 30 (Reuters) - The Government of Singapore
Investment Corp may invest in more banks in Europe and the
United States if it gets the chance, adding to its stakes in
beleaguered bank UBS and Citigroup, its chairman told Bloomberg
TV.

"If there are other banks of the quality of the two that we
bought into, with the promise and the capabilities and inherent
capabilities to recover, we have got the liquidity to meet it,
to make such an investment," GIC Chairman Lee Kuan Yew told
Bloomberg TV in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.

"We are buying something that we intend to keep for the
next two to three decades and grow with them", he said, adding
that GIC was a long-term investor.

GIC, one of the world's largest sovereign funds, invested
about $11 billion in UBS UBSN.VX and Citigroup (C.N: Cotización) after
they wrote off billions of dollars in the wake of the credit
crisis in the United States.

Its sister fund, Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL], which is run by
Lee's daughter-in-law, pumped $5 billion into Merrill Lynch
MER.N.

The two Singapore funds have since seen the value of their
investments shrink with UBS shares falling about 35 percent
since GIC first announced its plan to inject funds into the
Swiss bank by buying mandatory convertible notes.

Lee defended the investments saying Singapore had bought
very good franchises and brand names that would recover in
time.

GIC measured its performance over five to 10 years, he
said.
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